1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic printer.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a typical image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic printer has units to process electrophotography. In other words, the image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit configured to perform a charging step for evenly charging a photoconductive insulating layer of a photosensitive drum, an exposing step for forming an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum, a developing step for developing an image by applying developer (toner) from a development roller on the photosensitive drum, and a transferring step for transferring the developed image onto a sheet; and a fusing unit configured to perform a fusing step for fixing the developed image on the sheet by heating and pressing.
The image forming apparatus can perform one-side printing and double-sided printing on a sheet by conveying the sheet through the units. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-179282 discloses an image forming apparatus capable of double-sided printing in which a sheet passes through an image forming unit and a fusing unit so that an image is printed on a first side of the sheet, the sheet is turned over by a reverse mechanism, and re-fed to the image forming unit and the fusing unit so that an image is printed on the second side of the sheet.